


Independence Day

by Spazzo47



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 07:40:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11398080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spazzo47/pseuds/Spazzo47
Summary: It is July 4, 2017 and Will gathers his family for his special Independence Day tradition.LeoRoo asked for a 4th of July fiction and it just happens to fit the criteria of LilacMermaid's July Fan FIc Challenge -- on location.  So two birds with one stone!





	Independence Day

“Come on honey, we need you out here.”

“Yeah, mom, hurry up!” Will looked down at his son and tickled his tummy while they waited for Mac. They got a suite at a hotel so they could spend the extended holiday weekend in DC. Will couldn’t wait to take his family to the national mall and end their time with what he believes is the greatest fireworks show in the world. They stayed in for Brandon’s first Independence Day because Will was afraid of the kid going deaf if he had to hear the loud noises, not that their house in the suburbs had any shortage of people shooting off fireworks. Last year, Will took them to his family farm in Nebraska where he, his brother-in-law Ray, and his nephew Junior shot off fireworks themselves. This year though, he wanted to see his son’s face when the sky lit up in dazzling colors. He planned to use that time to explain the Star Spangled Banner to him.

Of course Mac thought all Will’s plans for the day were silly. She wasn’t opposed to visiting the mall, but she thought Brandon wouldn’t understand the significance of it. And she really didn’t think a 3 year old would understand what Francis Scott Key was seeing how it related to the fireworks. Her warning to Will went unheeded when Will looked defensive as he said to his wife, “He’s 3 and a half. And he’s our son, so he’s advanced.” Mac let out a sigh and rolled her eyes. A mini vacation for the 4th would be nice.

Mac finally joined her boys on the couch and looked at Will. “I thought you were going to dress in period clothes. I mean if we’re doing this, we should do it right.”

“This is how people learn, by telling their stories from one generation to another. We tell the Christmas story on Christmas. Jewish people celebrate the Pesach by telling the Passover story. He needs to understand the truths that we as a people hold self evident.”

Mac rolled her eyes. There was no use trying to talk sense into him. “Wrong important historical writing.”

“I know exactly where it’s from.”

Brandon looked at her mom, a spitting image of his father especially when he mimicked Will’s face, “Yeah, daddy’s smart.”

Will pulled the boy onto his lap and stopped from laughing out loud. "Well, Mommy's not bad herself. She went to Oxford, you know?"

While Mac shot Will a glare and pinched the back of his shoulder, Will gave her a smug smile and Brandon looked between his parents confused.

"Daddy! Mommy went to Cambridge. You know that."

Will and Mac each hid their laughs and Will said, "I know. I was just teasing Mommy."

Brandon looked seriously at his mom. "See mommy, daddy is really smart." 

Mac could barely contain her laughter and tickled under the child’s chin, “Yeah, I guess that’s why I keep him around.” She gave Will a suggestive look, “at least one of the reasons.”

Will leaned over his son and kissed his wife. “So are we ready?”

Mac rolled her eyes. “If I say yes, can we just get it over with?”

Brandon gave an excited yell as Will unrolled the “parchment” that he made Jenna make up for him, while ignoring his wife’s eye roll. “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Will continued to read the entire Declaration of Independence, getting more and more excited as he read. He read off all the names that signed and pointed to John Hancock’s name and explained to the boy that he signed it big so the king would know exactly who it was.

During the course of reading the document, Mac moved closer to the men in her life, resting her head on Will’s shoulder. Will could make anything sound good. The first year of their married life, Mac was pregnant on Independence Day and Will called her to the couch early. When she left their room to see what the emergency was, he explained he wanted this reading of the Declaration to be tradition. She laughed, because she thought he was joking. But watching him get excited, which made Brandon excited, was so much fun that she decided to enjoy the spirit of Will’s tradition.

“Daddy, why didn’t all these men like the king anymore?”

“He was a mean king and he lived really far away. He lived where your grandma and grandpa live so he couldn’t be a good king for them anymore.”

Brandon knitted his brows together. “Does that mean grandma and grandpa aren’t good grandmas and grandpas because they live too far away?”

Mac took this one, “No, no sweetheart. Your grandparents love you and always will no matter where they live. But back then, they couldn’t Skype or take an airplane over to see the king.”

“Oh, well, are grandma and grandpa mad because we celebrate not being part of them?”

Will shook his head. “Nope. They forgave us. Now we’re close allies.”

Mac added under her breath, “Until Trump’s next tweet I’m sure.”

Will gave her a look, Mac shot back an innocent one. Brandon was completely unaware of the looks passing between his parents and trying to sound like his father on TV, “Daddy, I have one more question. Why do we have to read this every year?”

Will tickled his son again, making him squirm on his lap. “Brandon Charles McAvoy, you were born in the greatest country in the world and sometimes we have to take time to remember that.”

Brandon gave his father his most contemplative look and said, “Okay, Daddy. Can I watch _Octonaughts_?”

Mac smiled and told him he could. While Brandon ran to get an iPad from anther room, Mac snuggled into her husband a little closer. “So America is the greatest county in the world all of sudden?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to give him the 7 minute speech. You don’t have your cue cards.” Will stopped and thought for a second. “But you know, maybe it’s not as bleak as the statistics suggest.”

Mac read the look on his face as one that could only mean they were working on their weekend off. Life was easier when she wasn’t President of the News Division and couldn’t just commandeer equipment and crew from other offices. But she had a duty and was curious what was going on in Will's head. She called her DC studio and arranged for a location shoot at the Lincoln Monument for Newsnight. Before the crew arrived, Mac made sure one more time that Will really wanted to do this, then she reminded Jim that he didn’t have to use whatever Will was about to say on Newsnight. Mac counted him down and Will, started, with Brandon standing next to him in the shot on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

“A final word on this Independence Day. This morning I woke up my family and read what I once called the single greatest piece of American writing. But then my son asked me why America is the greatest country in the world. Many of you with long memories know that I was asked that same question about 7 years ago and my answer was that it’s not. I listed statistics and facts to back up my claim. And the truth is, we haven’t fixed any of those issues. But I still looked this little boy in the eye and told him that it is. And I told him that because I still believe in what America stands for. I believe that even with our divisiveness and our imperfections, we the people still hold the truths as self evident that all of us are created equal and that in this country we believe, that each generation has chosen to believe that we can do better. We define ourselves by our American dream that when our kids grow up, they will be given a better life than the one we had. We believe that we aren’t judged only by our last mistake, but by the potential that we have as human beings. And while there may be some who don’t believe those things, the vast majority of us do.

“We may not all like the current state of politics. We may not all like our elected officials or how the process works. But every time we go to the ballot box we say we believe in the potential of this country. We believe in a government that is for the people and of the people. And we know that this country is more than just our leader. We believe in the ideals of America, even when it seems like those ideals don’t work. Even when the government seems to be deaf to the loudest voices. Even when our politicians aren’t able to keep up with our demands. Idealism, optimism is in the DNA of all Americans and all those who wish to join us. We have this optimism because we believe that we can do better.

“So on this day, when my son will experience his first fireworks at the National Mall, I will celebrate with my family what can be. I will celebrate the voice that the electorate has. The spirit of democracy that even today demands that our politicians represent us and our desires. Today we celebrate the belief that life here is better than in any other country because we can disagree and we can speak our mind and we can worship however or if we want. And our kids will inherit the good and the bad that we leave them, but my son and yours will have a better life than the one I had. And that is why America is the greatest country in the world.”


End file.
